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The resounding success of the inaugural EuMW Defence/Security Executive Forum at EuMW 2010 in Paris has prompted the joint organisers, the European Microwave Association (EuMA) and Microwave Journal, to expand European Microwave Week’s coverage of the Defence/Security sector with a full-day Forum.

Following the format that attracted over 200 attendees in Paris, the 2011 EuMW Defence/Security Executive Forum also attracted hundreds of participants and offered delegates the opportunity to benefit from the expertise and experience of representatives from government defence agencies and leading defence/security contractors who provided insights into how their organizations view future threats to global safety, security and defence, and the role of technology in addressing these risks. The Executive Forum concluded with an open panel discussion with questions from the floor.

The Executive Forum kept its established early evening time slot and be preceded and complemented by morning and afternoon sessions. The agenda included a Keynote which will set the scene and offer an overview of prevalent defence and security issues as well as a must-see industry perspective panel on RF/microwave technology for Defence related applications.

The morning session focused on Safety and Security and considered the application of the microwave technology that is being developed to increase security and address safety issues. World recognized experts gave tutorials and presentations on active and passive RF detection and imaging techniques applied to short range stand-off surveillance and through-wall and buried sensing. The afternoon session considered – Radar (and EW) Challenges for the 21st Century: An Industry Perspective – which focused on the application of microwave technology to provide security and counteract threats.

Executives from government defence agencies and leading defence/security contractors will consider how their organizations view future threats to global safety, security and defence and the role of technology in addressing these risks.

Bios and Abstracts

Morning Sessions

ABSTRACT: The forum will begin with a tutorial introduction by one of the leading technical experts in the field of passive millimetre wave imaging. The optical properties of materials and the atmosphere in the millimetre and sub-millimetre wave regions of the spectrum will be described. Passive and active imaging systems have been developed for many applications which include security scanning and surveillance. The architectures of these system and their enabling technology will also be reviewed.

The use of real-time mechanically scanned passive millimetre wave imagers for security and poor-weather surveillance was pioneered by Roger and his team at QinetiQ. At 35 GHz, this technology was used to scan lorries at channel ports in Europe for the detection of illegal immigrants, and a portal was constructed for imaging people in the indoor environment. At 94 GHz it was applied to standoff security scanning and helicopter collision avoidance.

ABSTRACT: The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has developed an ultra wideband radar operating at 660-690 GHz that can penetrate clothing and detect multiple targets with sub-cm range resolution. With an aperture of 1 m in diameter, cm-scale cross-range resolution is also possible at the system's operating standoff range of 25 m. Fast beam scanning is achieved by rapidly oscillating a small subreflector in a confocal Gregorian optical geometry, allowing the single-pixel imager to generate real-time radar images at a rate of one frame per second or faster.

Concealed object detection is entirely based on geometrical anomalies, not the target material or reflection properties, and so many different types of objects can be readily imaged, including metal guns, bomb belts, and plastic PVC pipes. With continuing progress in Terahertz component technology, specifically toward developing compact transceiver arrays, the prospects are good that a near-video rate THz radar imager can be built.

ABSTRACT: Passive millimetre-wave imaging systems for concealed weapons, explosives or other contraband detection have matured over the years to the point where near-real time systems are now commercially available. These systems are well suited for short-range (<5 m) imaging, but cannot attain sufficient performance for many applications for longer ranges, mostly due to excessive diffraction at frequencies of ~100 GHz where these systems operate. Thus, for the sake of angular resolution, there is a push towards higher frequencies within the submillimetre wave range. However, the lack of available high performance and low cost sub-millimetre wave radiometer technology has been holding back the development of these systems.

In this talk the audience will be introduced to an alternative radiometer technology, based on antenna-coupled microbolometers. Based on this technology, two passive cameras have been developed, both operating at an effective centre frequency of ~600 GHz. The systems are designed for <0.5 K radiometric resolution when capturing submm-videos at 10 Hz frame rate. New results from this novel high performance imager will also be shown. Lastly, a multi-band imaging system under development for false-colour imaging will be described.

ABSTRACT: This presentation will review the application of UWB radar technology for the detection and identification of buried targets. The physics of propagation and the properties of typical materials will be presented as a background to system design considerations. The presentation will review the types of radar signal modulation and their system implementation as well as their impact on performance and system efficiency. Examples of various applications will be presented.

ABSTRACT: UWB (microwave) imaging was first proposed in late 1980s and many developments have taken place subsequently. Due to rapid developments in both hardware and software, its possibilities have been considerably extended, resulting in widening the area of its application from ground penetrating radar to medical applications, concealed weapons detection and through-the-wall imaging. In this presentation, the basic principles of UWB radar imaging will be introduced. This will be followed by an overview of UWB technologies used in modern UWB imaging systems (in particular, time-domain, stepped-frequency and quasi-noise technologies) and imaging algorithms. Special attention will be given to MIMO imaging arrays as a breakthrough technology.

11.55: Passive Terahertz Imaging
SPEAKER: Chris Mann, ThruVision,UK

ABSTRACT: This presentation will discuss the mode of operation and general capabilities of a passive real time imager operating in the frequency range 230 to 270 GHz (1.1 - 1.3 mm). Buried improvised explosive devices remain the number one threat to coalition forces and some stand-off detection capability in this area has been demonstrated. The modality of operation has many similarities to thermal IR, however, the physics of the scene contrast mechanism is especially different and will be explained.

Lunch & Learn

Asif Anwar, Director of Defense Technology Markets / GaAs and Compound Semiconductors - Strategy AnalyticsBio: Asif has been providing insights and analysis in the advanced electronics markets for over 11 years, covering wireless networks, fiber optic networks, millimeter wave communications, radar, EW and optoelectronic applications. Asif’s current focus at Strategy Analytics includes supporting the defense industry across all the different segments, from platform and systems integrators, sub-system suppliers, software vendors and component and semiconductor technology providers. He regularly attends and speaks at external conferences and webinars on topics ranging from AESA radar, satellite communications and COTS sourcing. He graduated from the University of Teesside, UK in 1993 with a B.Eng Honours degree in Chemical Engineering, before doing Ph.D research on fatty acids.

ABSTRACT: With global economics placing pressure on defence departments, there will be a growing emphasis on creating value-add by providing systems that are cost effective, yield performance benefits, and are delivered within budget. For RF-based communications, electronic warfare and radar systems, capabilities are expanding around specific parameters such as broadband performance, power, linearity and digitization.

However, no one semiconductor technology solution will singularly satisfy every system requirement and we will see different technologies used side-by-side depending on the requirements of the system and platform. While global economics have forced governments to rethink defence priorities and there is no doubt that budgets will shrink, Strategy Analytics predicts that the desire for technology differentiation will lead to continued opportunities for electronic systems in emerging platforms and this will be supplemented by a focus on upgrading existing capabilities.

Afternoon Sessions

Barry Trimmer, Technical Director, Thales UK's defence mission systems businessBio: Barry Trimmer graduated in 1978 in from Warwick University, UK, in Physics, and in 1979 from Sussex University, UK, with a masters degree in Astronomy. He joined the radiation laboratory at EMI Electronics, Hayes, UK, working on radar antennas for the Searchwater radar and naval ESM systems. During the 1980s, he developed RF and system modelling within EMI, leading to system design of ground surveillance, weapon locating and man portable radar systems. In the early ’90s, he participated in the development of combat radar systems and designs for multi-sensor military configurations of civil air platforms. From 1992 onwards he has led the design of airborne radar, EW, multi-sensor systems and air defence systems. More recently, he has been the principal designer for the Thales WATCHKEEPER UAV system. He has been awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering silver medal in recognition of his contribution to Radar, ISTAR and UAV systems. He is presently technical director for the Defence Mission Systems business of Thales UK, with particular responsibilities for Radar, Electronic Warfare and Unmanned Air Systems.

ABSTRACT: The subject of technological convergence in radar and EW is one possible answer to the problem of maintaining credible military capability given increasing pressure on military budgets. The presentation will introduce the drivers for change, and discuss technological responses both at the RF/microwave level and at the mission system level where increased connectivity offers alternative and sometimes complimentary capability.

ABSTRACT: Surveillance equipment, such as through the wall radar, is increasingly in worldwide demand to support operations in many different theatres. In addition, the wish to equip all soldiers with such equipment drives technical and physical design challenges to their limits. With requirements for increased performance and reduced size, cost and battery power, the use of new technology and innovative mechanical design is key to achieving a product which gives troops a tactical edge in today's battlefield.

This presentation will consider the technical trade-offs relating to real world examples of state-of-the-art surveillance products such as through wall radar, the technology platforms that will form the basis for new equipment and the key operational requirements for the future battlefield.

Industry Panel Session:

15.00 – 16.30 – Radar Challenges & Solutions

Providing a New Level of Realism in the Testing and Evaluating of Advanced Radar and Electronic Warfare Systems

Liz Ruetsch, Applications Marketing & Planning Manager, Microwave & Communications Division, Agilent TechnologiesBio: Liz has been with Agilent for 16 years, and held a variety of positions in both the Americas regional sales organization located in Boston, Massachusetts, as well as in the Electronic Measurement Group (EMG) divisions, based in Santa Rosa, California. Liz is currently the Applications Marketing and Planning Manager for the Microwave Communications Division (MCD) and is based in Santa Rosa California. She manages a team of applications experts that are focused on the aerospace and defense, wireless, and EMC markets. Liz has a BSEE from Rutgers University (1994), and MBA from Boston University Executive MBA Program in 2006.

ABSTRACT: Traditionally, Aerospace and Defence radar design engineers use real world hardware and weapons systems to create simulations and scenarios to exercise both ground based as well as airborne based radar systems. The two major downsides of using this test methodology are that they cannot perform flight tests until a very late stage in the development process, and that using a full flight hardware test can have a multi-million Euro/Dollar price tag. With several new commercial off the shelf (COTS) offerings, components, subsystems and full systems can be tested much earlier in the design process, at a much lower cost, with an equivalent level of realism in their simulations.

As a real world example, this discussion will address how COTS equipment can simulate and detect the new targets in today’s battlefield such as slow-moving targets, exhibiting very small frequency shifts, with the radar return pulses being very low in amplitude and masked by clutter.

Dean White, Integrated Products Business Development Manager, TriQuintBio: Dean White holds a BSEE from the University of Utah and MSEE from the University of Texas at Arlington. He has been involved in the design of attenuators, mixers, phase-shifters, RF switches, low-noise and power amplifiers as well as highly integrated transmit / receive MMICs for communications and radar systems for more than 19 years. He worked at Texas Instruments Defense Systems and Electronics Group, Raytheon, SpectraPoint Wireless and REMEC Defense and Space prior to joining TriQuint in 2007. Mr. White now manages module business development at TriQuint including marketing responsibilities for the company’s Advanced Microwave Module Assembly (AMMA) facility.

ABSTRACT: Dean White will review current and future system requirements related to MMIC technology and will discuss the solutions in play to address these needs. Both GaN and GaAs technologies will play major roles in defining next-generation systems. The emphasis will be on innovative GaN and GaAs-based solutions for airborne, battlefield and shipborne radar systems.

Reliable High Power GaN Amplifiers for Radar Applications

Kal Shallal, Applications Engineering Manager at RFMD Inc. focusing on defence products, including high power GaN.Bio: Kal Shallal received his Bachelor of Science degree from DeVry University in Phoenix, Arizona in 1983. He began his career at Motorola in the Government Electronics Group, and then continued on to the Semiconductor Product Sector, both in Arizona. He was with Motorola for 14 years in which time he worked in design, research & development and eventually in application engineering. He had the opportunity to work on some of the very first LDMOS transistors used in high power amplifiers primarily in the base station market while at Motorola. He continued working on LDMOS transistor and high power amplifier designs at both Xemod and Sirenza Microdevices. He holds one U. S. patent on amplifier linearization. He is currently the Applications Engineering Manager at RFMD Inc. focusing on defense products, including High Power GaN.

ABSTRACT: The increase in demand for smaller size and higher efficiency in radar amplifiers has helped make GaN’s high power density transistors the standard in new designs. The pulsed power requirements of radar systems combined with the high power density of 6-9 W/mm, high efficiency >50% and drain breakdown voltage in excess of 300 V helps in its overall ruggedness and reliability, which makes it an effective choice for new radar amplifier designs. GaN has been used in the market place for over 10 years. The consistency and repeatability of the most recent assembly process has improved with the use of automation, including the picking of die from wafer, mounting the die in the transistor package, wire bonding, and hermetic lid seal.

To date, there has been thousands of hours of reliability data taken. Data including high temperature operating life, power cycling, temperature cycling and high temperature storage. Reliability data on parts has become more consistent by tightening parametric test specifications and implementing wafer level reliability sample screen. It removes parts that are out of family from the test group. With aggressive screens, we insure customers receive tight performance distributions and the overall reliability results have become more consistent. Eventually, as results from these tests are examined and evaluated, process improvements are identified from these results and the wafer process is optimized to increase overall product yield.

The Next Evolution of Instrumentation for Microwave Test

Jin Bains, RF Director for HW products at National InstrumentsBio: Jin has a BSEE from UC Davis, where he focused on RF/Microwave circuits and systems, and an MSEE from Stanford University, where his emphasis area was communications systems. For 11+ years, Jin worked at Hewlett-Packard and Agilent Technologies in various roles, including R&D project management on RF and baseband test instruments. Jin joined National Instruments in 2006 to start up the Santa Rosa RF R&D design center. He currently manages R&D teams in Santa Rosa and Austin, developing an array of RF test products that leverage the National Instrument PXI and LabVIEW platforms.

ABSTRACT: The first stage of evolution for microwave instrumentation saw the advance of core hardware technologies. Architectures moved from vacuum tubes to transistors as new technology allowed for more performance in smaller and less costly form factors. Now the main focus of advancement involves moving from vendor-defined, closed box instrumentation to open, software-defined modular instrumentation. Today’s microwave test applications not only require high fidelity instruments with superior front ends but also real time processing capabilities and flexibility to adapt to multiple standards. The combination of productive software and reconfigurable, parallel hardware technologies such as processors, FPGAs and DSP chips is a must for the demanding requirements of microwave test. The graphical system design approach discussed in this talk shows how to achieve greater speed at world class accuracy in a less expensive, small form factor.

NXP

ABSTRACT: The ability to deliver high performance products in demanding applications starts with understanding the requirements, weighing the constraints, and selecting the most appropriate technology available to meet the customers’ demands. However, too often the choice of the technology is made for emotive reasons, and results in claim and counterclaim of why technology A is superior to technology B.

A technology agnostic view of the world should be applied where every application can be judged on its own merits, and the most appropriate technology selected for optimum performance. This presentation will review the requirements for multiple applications including AESA Radar, SDR and Jamming and provide an unbiased opinion of the most appropriate technology. Special consideration will be given to the power amplifier in the system and an objective view between the suitability of LDMOS, GaAs and GaN. Test data will be shown to provide factual results and conclusions.

Defence & Security Executive Forum
17.00 – 18.30
Featuring:

David Fudge, VP Engineering and Projects of Selex Galileo (UK)Bio: David Fudge recieved his degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Hatfield Polytechnic. Prior to graduating, he gained industrial experience through placements with the Marconi Company as part of his course work. Fudge has held a variety of roles in the Aerospace and Defence business including Microwave Design, Project Management, Operations Management at a Research Centre and Hardware Function management. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology.

As Vice President for Engineering he has responsibility for leading the Engineering Function in providing the Luton Site with an Engineering capability in terms of People, Tools, Processes and Infrastructure to deliver the business objectives. He is part of the Site Senior Management Team and takes a keen interest in people development and mentoring new graduates in the early phases of their career.

Vincent Mifsud, VP for Technology for Cobham WorldwideBio: Vincent Mifsud is the VP Technology / CTO of a £500M Technology Division, Managing Director of an Engineering Consultancy business and Head of Technology within £2Bn Cobham plc, a leading British Aerospace and Defence group. He is responsible for guiding and developing profitable technology investment and processes within the business, leading world-leading research & development activities that have delivered significant new products and growth. Possessing a strong, broad commercial and engineering background gained at start-up, operating unit, divisional and group level in a variety of high-technology industries, with good language skills. Particularly interested in advanced technology with a good understanding of both defence and commercial aerospace and communications markets.